BioWarewriter Lukas Kristjanson, who has worked at the studio for more than 25 years, has been laid off. This comes as50 developers lose their jobs at BioWare, despite having at least two huge games in development:Dragon Age: DreadwolfandMass Effect 5.
While any layoff is devastating, Kristjanson’s job loss is downright baffling. Over his more than two-decade career, Kristjanson wrote for both Baldur’s Gate games and even wrote one of the series' most popular characters, Minsc. Now, his layoff comes as the long-awaited sequel,Baldur’s Gate 3, is a critical and commercial success - and even features Minsc as a returning companion.
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“Stunned to learn BioWare also let go of Lukas Kristjanson,” says David Gaider, a former BioWare writer who left in 2016. “We used to call him Old Man Luke and Writer Alpha - there since BG1, the writer behind Minsc and [Mass Effect’s] Joker and so many more.”
BioWare developed the first two Baldur’s Gate games before moving on to its own IPs, Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Put simply, we wouldn’t have the groundbreaking success of Baldur’s Gate 3 right now without the work of these BioWare writers.
Then there’s the inspiration that Baldur’s Gate 3 developerLarian Studiosseems to have taken from BioWare’s later work. With parties of up to four, huge romance subplots, and a party camp to chill in, many players have compared Baldur’s Gate 3 toDragon Age: Origins. And since Baldur’s Gate 3 launched with no microtransactions, live service elements, or even DLC, it has proven that there’s still a huge demand for these single-player experiences that BioWare was pushed away from afterDragon Age: Inquisition. Frankly, many feel that Baldur’s Gate 3 simply filled the void that BioWare left behind while it worked onAnthem, and cancelled two different versions of Dragon Age 4.
Even if we ignore the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the layoffs seem nonsensical and contradictory to BioWare’s goals. The studio has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to the Dragon Age series, but now, it’s laid off not only longtime writer Kristjanson, but also Mary Kirby, who has been at BioWare since 2006. She too wrote for all three Dragon Age games, even creating the unofficial series mascot, Varric. The dwarven rogue even seems to be one of the central characters in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, as he was in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition. It’s hard to see where the series can go from here without the likes of Kirby and Kristjanson at the helm.
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